Aussies under fire as injury toll rises

It is understood that meant normal maintenance work could not be carried out, leaving it rougher than usual. Davenport, who had her left leg taped due to a hamstring injury, said: "It's a difficult court. I think sometimes grass is a little bit hard for people to get used to in the beginning.

"But here you have a lot of other factors, the stickiness of it, how your foot can just stick sometimes. I mean, you see a lot of players go over on their ankles, and not have the ability to push off their feet."

Lleyton Hewitt hit out at the court last night after losing to Wimbledon champion Roger Federer, claiming it had not be resurfaced and was rougher than he expected.

He said: "It felt a lot rougher. It felt like the balls were fluffing up a lot more out there the last couple of weeks.

"I think the disappointing thing is we can't get a surface like the one we played on in Sydney before this tournament."

The Australian Open, and the warm-up events in Sydney and Perth, are all played on Rebound Ace hard courts, but the women's tournament has been hampered by injury before a ball was struck on the difficult surface.

Defending champion Serena Williams, Jennifer Capriati and 1995 winner Mary Pierce withdrew with injury in the run-up to the tournament.

Henin-Hardenne's match with Davenport was good enough to warrant a semi-final billing but that honour now goes to Zuluaga, who will try to halt the Belgian world No1's bid for a third Grand Slam title following last year's Wimbledon and US Open triumphs. Mauresmo said: " Unfortunately, I don't feel good enough to play a match.

"It's a muscle strain on the left side of my back. It's not great. It could get worse if I play and the best thing to do is to rest."

Zuluaga becomes the first Colombian to reach the semi-final of a Grand Slam, although it is not the way the 32nd seed would have liked to make history.

"It feels good but I didn't want it to be for the first time like this," she said. "I would have preferred to play. I knew when she finished her match against Alicia Molik she had some back problems.

"She was supposed to practise after I did yesterday.

"She warmed up but she could not practise at all. She couldn't hit a ball."

With neither Serena Williams or Capriati here and Venus Williams already out of the tournament, Mauresmo's chances of winning her first Grand Slam title were good.

"It was probably a good opportunity for me here in Australia," she said, choking back the tears.